Saturday, February 24, 2018


Just before the world decided to bring winter back, the dogs and I had a lovely little hike that really had me itching to get the horses out in the mountains.

We found a magic stump! There were no faeries in it, they probably heard us coming and scampered off.

How wonderfully beautiful the world is.

Seriously.

Huckleberry can't see a bit of water without getting into it up to his belly.

Even if it means he has to lay down.
And even if there are icicles. It was below freezing.

As much as it pains me to report, the next day Duncan went to a new home. He now lives in Montana with a family that needs hypo-allergenic horses. He has two curly mares for company and they're all settling in together quite well. He will be a mountain horse, hunting in the Bob Marshall and probably doing a lot of the same sort of stuff he would have done here, but with someone who has the time and gumption to train him right. He has a good training plan and won't rush him. He's given me a couple of updates so far. I'm glad he's happy to stay in contact. And I am glad Duncan has a chance to be the horse I know he can be with a different rider.

Sawyer and Juniper were having trouble acclimating to his leaving, so I moved them to an entirely new pasture with no mud and lots of (teeny tiny) grass so they'd be distracted from the change.

I still feel like a kid with Sawyer. We saddle up and just goof around. Go look at the leavings of a Coyote kill, pick up some cool feathers. I see something I need to do so I get off and fill a trough or something, let him graze, grab something I need to move, mount back up and we take it to where it needs to go, etc. Just doin' stuff.

Juniper just loves to be loved. And grass and sunshine. She loves those too.

I sold my Synergist saddle so I could get one that actually fits Sayer and won't kill me like the heavy roper does.  I saw a Sharon Saare "B tree" that sounded like the perfect fit for his back and I jumped on it. Big leap of faith. PayPal of a lotta money, it shipped from a lady in Texas and got home at dusk on a snowy day. Of course I had to put it on him immediately.

It fits!

I need to ride it more to know for sure. I've ridden less than 10 minutes in it thanks to the bad footing. No sense taking a chance hurting my old man in the slippery snow.

It's beautiful! The wild rose tooling on the back of the pommel and cantle is gorgeous. I'm it's second owner. The lady I got it from ordered every little detail exactly how she wanted it.  She sent me a copy of the original receipt/order slip. It must have been very hard to let go of.

The weather is terrible now. Snow, snow, snow. Yuck. Those trails will have to wait. One thing I do know for sure though, the snow will eventually melt and the ground will firm up and it will be summer again!

3 comments:

Linda said...

What does it weigh? I love the looks of it. As you know, I’m looking for a lighter saddle. I’m going to try a treeless Barefoot when I get back from vacation. I’m excited about that. I’ve heard though that they’re hard to mount without a block. I’m glad your leap of faith worked out! Buying saddles, unless, you’re having them custom made, which I’ve never done, is not an easy task. I guess that’s why I’ve stuck by my old roping saddle for so long.

Andrea -Mustang Saga said...

It weighs about 25 pounds.

If you're looking at treeless and want to be able to mount from the ground, look at EZ Fit saddles. I LOVED the one I demo'd except it brought out my own physical crookedness and I'm just too heavy for treeless. If you search EZ fit in the upper left hand corner of this blog it ought to bring up the posts I did about it. Super light, super secure, and no problem at all mounting from the ground.

Linda said...

Interesting. I’ll look it up. I’m excited to try the Barefoot.